Rodrigues (island)

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Rodrigues, named for Portuguese explorer Diogo Rodrigues, is one of the Mascarene Islands and a dependency of Mauritius. With a peak elevation of approximately 355 meters, it is located 560 km east of Mauritius, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It is 109 km² in size, and surrounded by a coral reef. The capital of the island is Port Mathurin. Google Earth refers to the island as Gambrani Island.

As of 2006, the island's population was about 40,000. The main language is Rodriguan Creole, while French and English are spoken or understood by some of the inhabitants. The main religion is Roman Catholicism with a small minority of Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses. Most of the inhabitants are of mixed African and French descent. The main industries are woodcrafting, farming, fishing and tourism.

Contents 1 Political History 1.1 Prior to Second World War 1.2 Prior to decolonisation 1.3 Early years after decolonisation 1.4 Development of self-rule 1.5 Current political atmosphere 1.6 Concerns about maintaining cultural heritage 2 Natural history 3 Interesting places 4 Notes and references 5 External links

[edit] Political History

[edit] Prior to Second World War

The island derives its current name from Diego Rodriguez, a Portuguese sailor who briefly visited the island in 1528. Although Chinese mariners, Arab and Malay traders, and pirates may have visited the island as far back as the tenth century, there was no indigenous population at the time.

By 1638, a council on nearby Reunion was administering Rodrigues as a French possession. During the French rule, slaves were brought from Guinea, Senegal, Mozambique, and Madagascar. It remained a French colony until British troops annexed the island in 1809. It was then governed as a separate British territory until May 30, 1814, when its administration was transferred to Mauritius.

[edit] Prior to decolonisation

During the Second World War, 300 inhabitants from the active population, supported the British in Tobruk and El Alamein. Yet, in March 1968, we were bound to Mauritius against our will, and marooned in the colonially imposed ‘forced marriage’ of unitary rule. Having offloaded Mauritius, the British in Rodrigues simply packed their bags, shot their dogs, and took off.

The history has been one of long painful struggle against non-consensual governments: from French possession, French colony, English possession, dependency of the colony of Mauritius, district of Mauritius, to Island region of Mauritius today.

By 1960, the decolonization of Mauritius and Rodrigues islands had already been decided. When subsequent negotiations and constitutional conferences were held in London and Mauritius in 1961, ‘65 and ‘67, Rodriguans were deliberately excluded. The pretext was that they did not have any political parties or organizations.

During that epoch, the ultraconservative Mauritian party, PMSD (Parti Mauritian ‘Social Democrat’), had been running a campaign of scaremongering, along ethnic lines in Rodrigues. Besides promises of freedom, its leader, Duval, had managed to convince the people that the Devil and his Dam would descend on Rodrigues after the British pulled out. Not surprisingly, in their first contact with the ballot box in 1967, an overwhelming ninety-eight percent of Rodriguans voted against being attached to Mauritius.

Of note, in 1967, Rodriguans were not offered a choice between freedom and colonialism; they had to face the horns of this dilemma: British colonization or Mauritian occupation … a foreign ruler or an alien master. Not too dissimilar to Indochina’s quandary: Japanese occupation or French colonization.

Many rodriguans subsequently moved to Canada, Australia, France, England, South Africa and other parts of the World.

In 1968, the economic or political unpreparedness should never have been used as an excuse to deny us our independence. Mauritius should have been granted its own independence separately, as Northern Rhodesia was. Rodrigues should have been placed under the guardianship of the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations, as a non-self-governing territory. A pan-African commission or UN special committee for self-determination could then have put together a long term plan for Independence.

[edit] Early years after decolonisation

In 1968, before the ink was dry on a unilaterally drafted Independence constitution; baton-wielding police hoisted the Mauritian flag atop Port Mathurin under a cloud of tear-gas. Rodriguans became unwilling Mauritian citizens overnight. British troops were summoned to put down protests.

Unitary rule was part and parcel of British colonial policy. As a result, despite underlying divisions among different geographical ethnic groups, territories were artificially forced into a unitary state.

The simple truth, however unpalatable, is when colonial rule ended in 1968, the island of Rodrigues had a population, and that island belonged to that population, and was not up for grabs.

The flaw in the dismemberment argument is that it is predicated on the false premise that Rodrigues was a legitimate territory of Mauritius prior to Independence. This was never the case. Mauritius never discovered a terra nullius Rodrigues; it never captured Rodrigues by conquest; the British never wrested Rodrigues from the French in 1814 simply to give it to Mauritius; Rodriguans never surrendered their individual sovereignty and their territorial integrity to a ‘Pax Mauritiana’ – Moreover, the Rodriguan nation never consented to be part of, or governed by Mauritius.

State sponsored propaganda, unremittingly repeated and embedded in school children as fact, is extremely difficult to unlearn. The untainted truth is Rodrigues was part of the British Empire until 1968; today, it is an annexed country under Occupation.

Whether Britain gifted Rodrigues to Mauritius in 1968, as it gave Eritrea to Ethiopia or whether Mauritius opportunistically annexed it, is neither here nor there. Whatever deal, whatever collusion took place between Britain and its Mauritian colonial minister, without our consent was illegal and immoral.

It was the shameless advancement of one country’s territorial ambition at the expense of its neighbour. Mauritius added 130,000 miles of our EEZ (exclusive economic zone) to its territory, and our people lost their homeland and their dignity.

Admittedly, after the British left in 1968, our hands were not cut off. All the same, Rodrigues was reduced to a Mauritian fiefdom, where marginalization soon became institutionalized. We found ourselves with higher unemployment, higher cost of living, higher infant mortality, higher primary education drop-out rate and lower literacy and living standard than Mauritius. Discrimination, domination and exclusion became the norm.

[edit] Development of self-rule

In 1976, a separate ministry was set up to deal with Rodrigues’ specificities. So far, only a handful of ‘moderate’ Rodriguans, with their wings clipped, have ever been co-opted to this portfolio. What’s more, no Rodriguan has filled this post in the past ten years, and the likelihood of it ever being different, seems remote. Mauritian politicians arbitrarily choose the minister for Rodrigues and politically-appointed Mauritian bureaucrats govern Rodrigues by proxy – irrespective of votes.

In 1991, when Rodriguans, demanded more control over their own affairs, a token island Council was put in place. Fellow travellers and party hacks were handpicked and allowed to make recommendations on local matters. But, when the Council, though toothless, began to fuel nationalist pride among those with ‘ideas above their station’ – it was unceremoniously disbanded in 1996.

In 2001, following a long sustained struggle, the idea of Autonomy for the ethnically diverse people of Rodrigues, was first mooted.

In 2002, ‘Autonomy’ arrived. The names were changed from Island Council to Regional Assembly and from Councillors to Commissioners.

[edit] Current political atmosphere

Mauritian ministers continued to micro-manage affairs and we got to elect the lackeys who run their errands. The central government retained all legislative and executive powers and practically everything else.

When we peek one inch beyond the chic sophistry, we see one people still ruling another, not only without that other’s consent – but against its will. Loie sans partage (absolute rule) is alive and well in Rodrigues; it can be seen any day of the year, flexing its muscle and beating its chest in Port Mathurin.

The chief of police, the judge, the minister for Rodrigues, all the principal heads of department, all the lawyers, all the policy makers, all those who actually govern Rodrigues – all come from Mauritius.

When our Creole language, in which is stored the experiences and struggles of our people, is spurned in our Assembly – when seventy percent of our people are disqualified from political office, because they do not speak a foreign language – when half-nourished, half-educated and half-free schoolchildren are forced to learn three languages – when there is a dearth of educational material on our African culture in a curriculum designed for us, by others – when our children mimic cultures, beliefs, languages and traditions dissimilar to their own, in order to validate their sense of self-worth – when our civil service which represents ninety percent of our educated, is effectively gagged from political discourse – when our people speak of Independence in tentative muffled whispers, for fear of government spies – when everything is controlled by external forces, there is no freedom … only domination.

Constitutional guarantees of no ruling caste, of no second class citizens, of consent of the governed to govern, seem to apply to all, except in respect to Rodriguans.

[edit] Concerns about maintaining cultural heritage

The majority of Mauritius’ 1.3 million population are descendants of Indian indentured labourers, mainly from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, brought by the British to meet labour shortages on Sugar cane plantations; whereas, ninety-five percent of Rodrigues’ forty thousand strong population are direct descendants of African slaves.

Until recently, Rodrigues’ small maximum carrying capacity (approx.50,000) and its geographical isolation, have managed to preserve its cultural identity to some extent. However, the past few years have seen Mauritians, in ever-increasing numbers, being fast-tracked onto crown land in Rodrigues.

[edit] Natural history

Rodrigues is a volcanic island arising from a ridge along the edge of the Mascarene Plateau. Estimated to be from 1-4 million years old, in this time Rodrigues has developed a unique environment including many endemic species: 42 species of trees; the Rodriguan bat; two species of bird, the Rodrigues fody and the Rodrigues warbler; and a species of coral^[1]. Other endemic animals such as Rodrigues giant tortoises and Rodrigues Solitaires are now extinct.

The coral reef of Rodrigues is of particular interest due to it having to self-seed. That is it receives no coral zooplankton from elsewhere. This has led to the development of the above mentioned coral and a small number of species being present.

The coffee plant, café marron, was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 1979. ^{[2] [3]}

[edit] Interesting places

• Port Mathurin
• English Bay
• Cavern Patate
• L'Hermitage Island

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ Convention on Biological Diversity - Third National Report for the Republic of Mauritius, Section 5.2.1, p. 26 (DOC). Ministry of Environment and National Development Unit in collaboration with the UNEP/GEF (October 2006). Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
2. ^ http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/plants/islandplants/marron.html
3. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5307047

[edit] External links

• The Little Coffee Plant that Wouldn't Die
• Images of Rodrigues
• Travel guide of Rodrigues
• Activities in Rodrigues
• Map of Mauritius
• Shoals Rodrigues
• All About Rodrigues
• Mauritius & Rodrigues Travel guide
• Weather in Rodrigues
• Transportation in Rodrigues
• Practical Informations on Rodrigues

Districts and dependencies of Mauritius
Districts
Black River | Flacq | Grand Port | Moka | Pamplemousses | Plaines Wilhems | Port Louis | Rivière du Rempart | Savanne
Dependencies
Agalega Islands | Cargados Carajos Shoals | Rodrigues

Coordinates: 19°43′S 63°25′E